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Detroit-area company now owns Lakeshore Mall

Lakeshore Mall, which sold in April, was purchased by a Michigan company.

Jeff Gill

Updated:
May 23, 2017, 6:20 p.m.

Lakeshore Mall in Gainesville is now owned by a Michigan company, but little else is known at this point about the longtime commercial site’s future.

True Buyer Stockbridge Enterprises of Orchard Lake, Mich., near Detroit, bought the property April 19 in an auction, according to real estate records received by The Times.

Company officials, including the key contact, Dr. Mahmoud S. Alhadidi, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Records don’t show any plans for the 50-acre site off Pearl Nix Parkway and Dawsonville Highway/Ga. 53.

The document does say that, at the time of the sale, the mall “suffered from high vacancy.”

“We’re excited to work with Dr. Alhadidi and the team at Lakeshore,” said Tim Evans, Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce vice president of economic development, on Tuesday. “It’s a great retail location and has been for 50 years.”

In a digital auction earlier this year, the starting bid for the 490,979-square-foot mall was $1.75 million.

The mall has had several owners through the years. Garrison Lakeshore Owners LLC is the current owner, according to Hall County records.

Garrison had committed nearly $21 million to redeveloping the mall since it was bought for $6.5 million in 2010. Dick’s Sporting Goods, which opened in 2013, is the mall’s newest anchor, its construction resulting in a separate building from the rest of the mall.

Evans has called Lakeshore “a great redevelopment opportunity.”

“It’s ground zero for a great retail site,” he said.

Fifty years “is a long, long time for any retail center to be operating,” Evans said. “They often have a lifespan of 20-25 years before they have to be completely redeveloped. And there are many parts of that mall that are original to the development 50 years ago.”